Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 32, Number 3, 1 March 2015 — Kakaʻako Makai -- our crown jewels [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Kakaʻako Makai -- our crown jewels

n 2012, the State of Hawai'i transferred nine parcels of State land to OHA as a settlement for the outstanding ceded land revenue claims that date back to OHA's creation in 1978. OHA's vision for Kaka 'ako is to develop its lands for highest and best use with the goal to optimize generating the highest potential revenues to support its programs created to enhanee opportunities for Native Hawaiians.

The property consists of approximately 30 acres of former state-owned land in the Kaka'ako Makai area. OHA has an opportunity to plan and create a model urban waterfront community in Kaka'ako Makai that will blend contemporary living while evoking a Hawaiian sense of plaee and serving as a heaeon for Native Hawaiian values, practices and deep knowledge. Understanding the history of these lands will give OHA a better understanding of how the past practices and the uses by Kanaka Maoli ean shape the future development of the lands and their rightful plaee in the larger ahupua'a. Various native and foreign accounts consistently record that these lands were part of a larger landscape that met the subsistence needs of the population in traditional times. Traditional practices included pa'akai harvesting, fishpond farming activities and other marine subsistence gathering activities that are still practiced today. Today, the area is undergoing a major transformation to create a modern urban mixed-use community. OHA has hired a consortium of experts to re-establish a cultural connection to these lands as planning and design move forward. Three major themes were identifled for the Strategic Management Plan: To create a cohesive and multifunctional planned community that embraces a transformative ideal of Iive, work and play. To support the development of a cultural marketp1ace that invests in intellectual capital, seeking possibilities of exploration and innovation in education, health and political leadership. To create

a kīpuka, a cultural oasis, where Hawaiian national identity ean flourish and be celebrated among Hawaiians and loeal eommunities throughout the Paciflc, but also serve as a welcoming plaee for global leaders to gather. By the time this issue goes to press, OHA will have toured around the State from Feb. 17 to engage with the community on the possibilities for its eonceptual plans for the Kaka'ako

Makai development and how it will beneflt its beneflciaries directly and the community-at-large. Our neighbor island beneflciaries who are not physically on O'ahu will learn of how they will benefit from this eeonomie engine and hub. The revenues derived from this project ean cultivate and further support programs for our lāhui Statewide. A critieal component in the planning process for Kaka 'ako Makai is an understanding of the market conditions and land values that will inlluenee the use of the lands. One of the benefits of OHA's Kaka'ako Makai settlement is that it also provides direct access to the oeean from its waterfront property. We will study the opportunities to engage the wa'a community as a whole and consider the potential of developing a portion of the OHA Kaka'ako Makai parcels as a hosting site for the annual Moloka'i Hoe, Nā Wāhine O Ke Kai and other eanoe association races; and to be a home site for our long-distance voyaging canoes. Oeean access is a strategic cultural pathway to perpetuate Hawaiian voyaging, wayfinding and fishing traditions and practices and equally important to oeean sports activities. There is a pent-up demand for affordable housing residential units near downtown and Waikīkī. It is my hope that OHA will be a part of developing affordable housing residential units for our working people in exciting and growing urban Kaka'ako, the epicenter of Honolulu. It would be an incredible opportunity for our beneficiaries to enjoy affordable waterfront living in urban Honolulu on lands owned by their trust, OHA. ■

j LEO 'ELELE ^ > TRUSTEE MESSSAGES /

Carmen "Hulu" Lindsey Trustee, Maui